The head of the Energy Regulatory Office, the URE, Rafał Gawin, said that from 1 July to 31 December, the monthly electricity bill for households who use less than 2 MWh of electricity will rise by 27.50 net zł a month.

Meanwhile, the average bill for the 9 mln households in Poland connected to the gas network will go up “to 239 zł” (€55 per megawatt hour), which experts say means an increase of 20% for the average consumer.

A host of subsidies introduced by the former government, including vouchers for low income families, will expire at the end of 2024.

Despite the cost of gas and coal going down since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, supply shocks and changes of sourcing routes and transport costs have been absorbed by suppliers but will now be passed on to consumers.

Economists now see a knock-on effect for the inflation rate, with analysts at ING posting on X: “We predict that the total effect of gradually unfreezing the price of electricity and gas on inflation will be around 1.4 to 1.5 percentage points.”

Inflation in May was 2.5%, while the consensus of analysts polled by the National Bank of Poland is for prices to rise 2.5% in June, compared to last year.